The list of 153.102 car number plates in 63 cities and provinces has been made public by the Traffic Police Department, in coordination with the Vietnam Partnership Auction Company on the online auction information portal.

The first auction campaign is expected to take place on August 15-20, 2023.

However, many people say that the number plates to be auctioned are not beautiful and lucky. There are not many special numbers with the same 5 numbers, or lucky numbers which bring prosperity in doing business (8 or 9). 

The numbers that could attract attention are 30K-599.99; 11C-06789; 14A-79999; 14A-83333; 14A-82222; 15K-18888;15K-16666; 17A-38888; and 60K-34567

There are only two plates with five ‘one’ numerals 95A-11111 and 84C-11111; one plate with ‘two’ numerals 90A-22222; two plates with five ‘three’ numerals 49C-33333 and 75A-33333; two plates with five ‘four’ numerals 30K-44444 and 36C-44444; three plates with five ‘five’ numerals 19A-55555, 30K-55555 and 38A-55555; three plates with five ‘six’ numerals 60C-66666, 98A-66666 and 99A-66666; one plate with five ‘seven’ numerals 51K-77777; one plate with one ‘eight’ numeral 51K-88888; and one plate with five ‘nine’ numerals 36A-99999.

Do Trung Hieu, a well-known car number plate collector, said he could not understand why many insignificant number plates have been put into auction. The "rubbish" plates such as 11A-10513, 11A-10514 and 11A-10517 are also available in the list.

“In some provinces, the number of cars is small, so the car plate number funds have increased slowly. This explains why there are only ‘ugly’ number plates,” Hieu commented.

“I wonder why the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has decided to put insignificant numbers into auctions as well. What I am sure of is that people are likely to get very unhappy numbers,” he said.

Nguyen Tien, who collects original motorbikes in Can Tho, said he wonders what criteria MPS uses to define ‘beautiful car number plates’. 

“It seems that the thoughts about ‘beautiful number plates’ by MPS doesn’t coincide with people’s thoughts,” he said, adding that 153,000 is an overly high figure, which has confused people.

Hoang Thang Dat in Dong Anh district, Hanoi, who plans to buy a car in August, feels worried that he may get bad plates as most plates with logical numbers, or easy-to-remember numbers, which are not too beautiful or original, are subject to auctions.

The car number plate registration fee is VND20 million in Hanoi. Previously, with VND20 million, people hoped they might be lucky enough to get a plate with a relatively beautiful plate. But this won’t happen anymore.

Vu Diep